Even though I normally use my Alphaserver DS10 as a Linux workstation with a locally connected screen, keyboard and mouse there are times when I want to use the serial console, particularly when running VMS which doesn’t support my graphics card.

To switch between the graphical and serial console modes.

>>> set console serial

>>> set console graphics

Note – If the system is currently configured to use a serial console, you can still set the console mode using the graphical console as even though no output is be shown on the screen as the system starts up, by pressing return a couple of times to bring up the console prompt.